In Crimea, most take Russian intervention in stride

Mar. 2, 2014
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This group of friends from Crimea's provincial capital Simferopol say they want autonomy for Crimea. They were flying the Russian flag Sunday in Sevastopol to express gratitude to Russia, but said they did not want to secede or join the Russian Federation. / Filip Warwick

by Jacob Resneck, Special for USA TODAY

by Jacob Resneck, Special for USA TODAY

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine - In this naval port city, residents pushing strollers lined the boulevards and parks Sunday, many of them donning Russian flags on their lapels.

Acrobatic dancers from Russia's Black Sea fleet entertained a crowd in the thousands that cheered and chanted patriotic slogans.

Some 250 uniformed Kuban Cossacks arrived from the Krasnodar region of southern Russia and were sworn in during a public ceremony to start joint patrols with Sevastopol's local police force. Wearing green fatigues, holding bull whips and clad with their signature Kubanka wool hats, the men were set to begin patrolling the streets.

"I'm very happy to be here today, taking into consideration these very difficult times, that we are here in the Crimea in Sevastopol," the Kuban Cossack's leader, Col. Sergei Savonin Yurievich, told reporters. "We are here to do our duty in order to protect Sevastopol."

As tensions flare between Russia and the West over this small peninsula that only joined Ukraine in 1954 when it was ceded to Ukraine's Soviet republic, most here say they weren't worried about the future.

Hundreds of miles away, the new interim government called up reservists in the military to prepare for a further escalation following Russian troops moving into the peninsula in what Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk called tantamount to "a declaration of war." Hundreds of men lined up outside the city's almost dozen military recruitment centers Sunday to receive their orders, according to footage from local broadcasters.

Even so, some in the Crimea say they don't expect military confrontation, and while many are warm to the idea of Crimea joining the Russian Federation, not all say they want to secede.

A group of friends wearing Russian flags visiting from the provincial capital of Simferopol said they had no enmity to Ukraine or ethnic Ukrainians.

"We're brothers," said 30-year-old Vladimir, who wouldn't provide his full name for fear of retribution for his comments. "More than brothers, we're Slavic brothers of the same nation."

But doesn't flying Russian flags imply secession? Not at all, his friends replied.

Crimea is an autonomous province of Ukraine and should stay that way, Vladimir said.

But fears of rising Ukrainian nationalism - and recent legislation that would strip the Russian language of official status - is what alarmed the Russian-speaking population.

"Russia doesn't want to take Crimea â?? it just wants to protect us," he said.